March 23, 1986

Led by the inside work of a guard forced to play center, 11th-seeded Louisiana State continued its unlikely mastery of top teams, stunning top-seeded Kentucky, 59-57, this afternoon to capture the Southeast Regional championship. Louisiana State (26-11), which finished tied for fifth place in the Southeastern Conference, will meet West Regional champion Louisville (30-7) Saturday in the semifinals of the Final Four at Dallas. The matchup for the other national semifinal will be determined Sunday, when Navy plays Duke in the East Regional title game and North Carolina State takes on Kansas in the Midwest Regional. This was the fourth meeting this season between L.S.U. and Kentucky (32-4), and Kentucky had won the first three. It was a seesaw battle during which the Tigers twice recovered from 4-point deficits in the final eight-and-a-half minutes. Neither team led by more than 4 points after Kentucky held a 13-8 advantage 5 minutes 5 seconds into the game.

There are certain roles that mark a performer forever. Sean Connery will inexorably be James Bond, and who can think of Vivien Leigh apart from Scarlett O'Hara? Humphrey Bogart played many roles, but for most of us, he will always be Rick, who came for the waters and ended up with a beautiful friendship. Giulietta Masina shares this fate. For the 32 years since she overwhelmed the film world with her portrayal of Gelsomina in ''La Strada,'' she has always been the warmhearted innocent, the foolish little waif, the 33-year-old who looked like the 14-year-old circus performer. She is the pantomimist who promised to be a female Charlie Chaplin.

The Government's system of assuring air travelers' safety is becoming increasingly strained, according to aviation professionals and Congressional investigators. It is not that flying has suddenly become unsafe, they say, but rather that the system is being stretched thin by increases in air traffic, on the one hand, and depleted ranks of Federal inspectors, investigators, air controllers and technicians, on the other. The aviation experts trace the problem to cost-cutting efforts both in the Government and in the industry as new airlines and tempting low fares, created by the sharp reduction in Federal regulation of the industry, lure growing millions of travelers to the skies. Agency Fears Further Cuts Officials of the Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for insuring air safety, respond that Federal budget cuts are not reducing safety but say that further large reductions would have a serious effect. Already, they say, shortages of inspectors and deficiencies in training, among other budgetary effects, are making it harder to maintain safety standards.

LINES formed 10 deep in front of the stock quotation machines at the Merrill Lynch kiosk in Grand Central Station last week. Brokers all around the country heard from long-forgotten customers and mutual fund managers were button-holed in restaurants for stock tips. From cocktail parties and subway platforms to suburban golf courses and country stores, conversations kept erupting about the most powerful rally to hit Wall Street in years. Now even the little guy, who has lingered on the sidelines during the last few years, is wondering whether he should jump in. Overwhelmingly, the professionals say 'Yes.' Mutual fund managers, Wall Street strategists and large institutional money managers contend that there are still years left in the rally of the 80's. They say that people who missed the surge that catapulted the Dow up 500 points since September should take a deep breath - then pick their stocks carefully, brace for some turbulence and jump in. Despite Friday's big 35.68-point drop - much of it due to the expiration of options and futures - professionals say that the market's fundamentals have not changed. And trying to predict further price declines before investing is an exercise in futility. ''Every time I think of doing that, I take two aspirin and lie down,'' said Harvey P. Eisen, president of Integrated Asset Management, the top-performing independent investment firm in 1985.

WHEN the residents of Gregory Park, a 786-unit apartment complex here, get their final conversion papers from the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (H.U.D.) this month or next, they will have formed a cooperative, acquired one of the few remaining real-estate bargains in the area and become what they call a ''United Nations of families.'' They also will have ended two decades of frustration marked by poor building maintenance, vandalism, robberies and economic uncertainty. ''We have taken charge of our lives,'' said Thelma Link, president of the Gregory Park Cooperative Corporation, ''and we are working together to restore our homes to their original beauty.'' Mrs. Link said that the residents considered the $11 million purchase price a bargain, in spite of an additional $7 million they will have to spend for renovations. They will make average down payments of $4,000 a unit and, under 40-year mortgages, pay monthly carrying charges ranging from $300 for a ground-floor studio to $625 for a three-bedroom penthouse apartment.